New State-of-the-Art EEG System Will Enhance

Published in 11/26/2003

Images

Peter Gordon and Andrew Gordon

Students
and researchers in the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences can start
to plan new types of studies soon, once a new high-density
electroencephalographic (EEG) system arrives. The EEG system uses up to
256 scalp electrodes to study the time-course and localization of
neural activity associated cognitive function. In other words, through
the use of this equipment, not only will researchers be able to measure
brain activity, but will also be able to do mathematical calculations
to determine from where in the brain the activity is coming.

Through
the support of a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and
the efforts of Professors Andrew Gordon and Peter Gordon and their
colleagues at TC, the current research facilities in the movement
science and speech science laboratories in Thorndike Hall and the
basement of Thompson Hall will now contain the new state-of-the-art
equipment to enhance the various kinds of research that can be done.

Funds
were also requested to purchase a remote eyetracker that will be used
to determine where subjects, including young infants, are looking when
they are performing various tasks. The remote eye tracker they chose is
different from other trackers that require cameras to follow a
subject's eye gaze. According to Peter Gordon, this particular eye
tracker builds a 3-D model of the subject's head using a few reference
points. Once the coordinates have been registered, the subject can move
up to 180 degrees and retain gaze direction or move out of the scene
completely and coordinates will be reacquired immediately when they
return into view. "This is particularly useful when testing young
infants or active juveniles who are not particularly good at keeping
their heads still," Peter Gordon said.

"Basically, Peter Gordon
and I recruited a number of other faculty from TC to write a proposal
that would involve the use of a core set of instrumentation or
equipment with the central focus of the project being on the study of
the integration of language and movement processes," said Andrew
Gordon. "For example, my work will focus on studying typing and sign
language skills and the movements involved with the hand during those
skills."

Not much is known about coordination of eye and hand
motion during typing, Andrew Gordon explained. Results of studies that
have been done on eye-hand coordination during typing suggests that
there is a unidirectional relationship-the success of hand movement
planning and execution controls a large proportion of eye movements.
The relationship between eye location and pressing a key is variable,
and cannot directly trigger subsequent eye movements. What, then,
determines the size of the eye-hand span? Does the position of the eye
trigger finger movement or vice versa? Those are just a few of the
questions Andrew Gordon and his students and postdoctoral fellows hope
to answer with the new equipment.

Peter Gordon will be looking at
whether infants understand the relevance of objects in the structure of
events. He plans to use the EEG system to examine the kinds of brain
activity that happens when changes are made that affect objects within
event structures.

Other faculty members who contributed to the
proposal include Professor Steven Lepore, who will be examining the
role of written and verbal emotional expression on adaptation to life
stressors. He will be using the EEG to measure brain activity during
these behaviors.

Professor Robert Kretschmer will be using the
eye-tracker to study the patterns of eye movements of emergent silent
readers as well as to explore the relationship between eye movements
and the ability of proficient readers to immerse themselves in a story
world involving inference processes. These studies will shed light on
reading strategies and the abilities of emerging readers.

Professor
ZhaoHong Han plans to use the new equipment to develop empirical
research approaches to how the brain functions during the process of
second language acquisition in children and adults.

Assistant
Professor Karen Froud will be using the EEG equipment to understand how
language is processed in schizophrenics and other populations with
language disorders.

The equipment will also be available to
others in the College whose research may be enhanced by these types of
measurements. "So long as the research focuses on the integration of
language and movement processes and can utilize the type of equipment
that we have, we welcome ideas for collaboration on utilization by
faculty and the students that they are working with," Andrew Gordon
said. "Certainly students who are working with faculty will be eligible
to use this equipment."

He added, "For education, it's
becoming increasingly important to understand the brain processes
underlying verbal cognitive and movement processes, and the acquisition
of this equipment is going to allow us to really explore some of these
issues that have never been done before. I don't think that there are
any other laboratories in the world that will have this capability of
integrating this type of equipment together. I'm really excited about
it."